IBM Offers Processing on Demand

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IBM Offers Processing on Demand

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A new method of computing will allow companies to pump up their processing power as easily as they crank up the air conditioning during a heat wave.

On Demand clients will be networked to a huge cluster of computers running Linux and Unix. Clients can tap into whatever processing power they need in order to get that week's work done, paying only for what they use.

One of the world's largest petroleum services companies, Petroleum Geo-Services, will be the first to use the new system. According to PGS, the setup will probably save the company more than $1.5 million a year.

IBM designed the service for companies that occasionally need mega-processing power but don't want the fixed costs and operational responsibility of owning their very own supercomputer.

PGS will use the on-demand service during a three-month deep-water seismic exploration project in the Gulf of Mexico, scheduled to start next month.

Chris Usher, president of global data processing for PGS, said the company had been looking for a way to ramp up computer capacity without a comparable rise in cost.

When PGS runs into a situation that requires more computing power, such as discovering an undersea area that needs in-depth exploration, a systems administrator can boost available processing power by clicking a button in the Web-based command center.

IBM expects the first customers of the on-demand service to be involved in digital media and science, fields that require the power of supercomputers only at certain times in the research and product development cycles.

For example, animation and special-effects studios need massive supercomputing power to render the increasingly complex imagery and effects used in films. However, once a project is completed, the need goes away until the next demanding job crops up.

So, rather than having a behemoth like the aptly named supercomputer Beowulf sitting around unused for much of the time, the studio could tap into the On Demand network that includes hundreds of IBM eServer p655 systems, a massive Linux cluster powered by IBM eServer x335, and x345 systems and rack-mounted servers with Intel Xeon processors.

"Our work ranges from really challenging effects jobs like outer-space explosions to something comparatively simple like creating the titles and credit lines," said Mel Graves of Optical Effects, a boutique studio in New York. "Sometimes I feel like there's not enough computer power in the world to suit my needs; other times my staff needs very little in the way of processing power. So something that would allow me to scale up or down as need dictates would be pretty damn cool."

The initial IBM supercomputing facility will be based in Poughkeepsie, New York, with other national and international facilities to follow.